Graham Wallace

overview

Graham Wallace has 12 years experience as a CEO including heading two FTSE 100 companies. He has 14 years experience as both an executive and non executive director on a variety of FTSE 100 and other company boards and has spent the last nine years using this experience to successfully mentor CEOs from a broad range of businesses.

APPROACH

Working with Merryck to help CEOs ‘build successful businesses and lead fulfilling lives’ is Graham’s current focus. He believes that the CEO is subject to a unique set of pressures that are very difficult to appreciate unless you have been there. As a firm believer that high performance often results from being pushed out of your comfort zone, he relishes using his experience as a CEO and mentor to help others achieve their full and sometimes unexpected potential.

CAREER HISTORY

Joining Merryck in 2006 represented a significant change to Graham’s previous CEO role when he spent four years running Cable and Wireless plc during a period of unprecedented turmoil in the global telecommunications industry. Cable and Wireless’ survival, at a time when many competitors failed financially, was due to his radical financial restructuring. After 35 years in the corporate world, he took a complete break spending two years successfully completing a Masters degree in History before joining Merryck. Graham’s career included the role of CEO of Cable and Wireless Communications where he led the merger of four companies, listed the company on the New York and London Stock Exchanges, successfully launched the world’s first digital cable television service and presided over a trebling of the company’s share price. This was preceded by 11 years at Granada starting as Finance Director then successively CEO of Granada’s two biggest divisions. Graham has also held a number of non-executive directorships including at BSkyB and Barclays. He is a graduate engineer and qualified accountant.

PERSONAL

Graham has been married to Denise for 40 years and they have two grown up children. He is a committed Tottenham Hotspur fan and he and his son are season ticket holders. He is a keen theatre, opera and restaurant goer in London and fell walker in the Lake District from their second home.

“Your focus on profit and performance with an appreciation of the demands of the CEO really attracted me. My retreat was outstanding. Our work together has broadened my horizons to the extent that my role as a leader has forever changed for the better.”